Today was a busy day for some of the smaller guilds with the Visual Effects Society, the Cinema Audio Society, and the Makeup and Hairstylists Guilds all announcing their nominations for 2013.

First, we have the VES, whose main category to look at is “Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture,” where we find Gravity and four other nominees that are just going to have to be happy with the fact that they got nominated. This is perhaps the easiest category to call in the entirety of awards season, and I don’t mean just here, but for the Oscar as well (Last year’s winner, Life of Pi, easily took this category before going on to claim the Oscar). It’s true that films like The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Star Trek Into Darkness had outstanding effects as well, but nothing even came close to the amazing, jaw-dropping visual effects used in Alfonso Cuaron’s masterpiece.

Next up we have the CAS, whose main category to keep an eye on is Best Sound Mixing for a Live Action Motion Picture. The nominees here are Captain Phillips, Gravity, Inside Llewyn Davis, Iron Man 3, and Lone Survivor. Again, Gravity is far and away the favorite to take the category (in addition to the Oscar) for its outstanding mixture of sounds in space. Last year’s winner, Les Miserables, won for its incredible mixing of live singing with the rest of the film and subsequently won the Oscar as well.

Finally, we have the nominations for Makeup and Hairstyling, which are spread over so many categories that it’s hard to tell what to focus on. However, we already have the shortlist of nominees to help us narrow it down (all eight finalists are spread over three of these categories). After such films as The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Star Trek Into Darkness, The Butler and 12 Years a Slave were all shockingly left off the list, the focus primarily fell on American Hustle, which we find in the Best Period and/or Character Hairstyling. This is another Oscar that Les Miserables took last year, so it’s quite conceivable that American Hustle could prevail. Then again, it could be another one that The Great Gatsby takes, along with Production Design and Costumes.

The VES announces its winners on Feb. 12th, the CAS on Feb. 22nd, and the Makeup and Hairstylists Guild on Feb. 15th, so in just a matter of weeks, we’ll have a better grasp of where these categories stand in regards to the Oscars.

Check out the complete list of nominees below and let us know what you think in the comments!